So he opted for hen and duck eggs next, and, to his surprise, after three days in the incubator, he noticed one had a beating heart.
“Watching it develop over the next three weeks was fascinating. I was over the moon when it finally pecked its way out,” he said.
The duckling emerged from its shell on its 28th day in the incubator, surprising both Atkins and his entire family.
“I was amazed when I saw William carrying boxes of eggs into his bedroom,” his dad said. “I confess I never thought he would actually produce a live duck.”
Atkins kept the duckling in his room for its first few weeks of life, bonding with the small, “absolutely adorable” little creature.
Depending on its sex, which he had not been able to determine, he decided to name it either Jeremy or Jemima. When it grew large enough, the duckling would be rehomed at a local farm where there is a pond and a flock of rescue ducks.
No more than two months later, 9-year-old Martha Rawstorne and her father, Tom, decided to replicate Atkins’ experiment. They bought two dozen hen eggs, 18 duck eggs, and three dozen quail eggs from an online grocery delivery service and from their local co-op to see if they could successfully hatch them in to baby birds.
Before popping them in the incubator, Tom already had his doubts. Some of the eggs had arrived cold, ostensibly having been refrigerated, which he knew could lower their chances of developing into chicks.
He was shocked when despite this, his daughter woke him up one morning two weeks later to announce that two of the quail eggs had hatched. One was yellow and the other a mottled brown.
Then, to both of their surprises, another egg hatched 10 days later, revealing a tiny, perfectly formed baby duckling.
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